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I've set up this blog so that all my friends, relations and colleagues in the world of writing can keep up to speed with what I'm doing - from now on, I'll never have to say sorry for not keeping in touch.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Recently, there's been some controversy about the new Waterstones guidelines on author signings. Some stores have apparently been making authors feel less than welcome at these events.

So I must put it on record that today Hereford Waterstones made Christina Courtenay and me very welcome, offering us drinks and a really good in-store selling position, a signing table and some shop-window publicity. We were encouraged to chat to customers and offer them chocolates, too.

Since we're romantic novelists, the chocolates were hearts and Heroes - of course!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

I've just got back from a fabulous weekend in Bedford which for a few days was literally turned over to the Festival of Romance. So everything in the town went pink. Well, not entirely pink, but fairly pink in places! There were also lots of Regency soldiers, kilted Scotsmen and ladies in long frocks materialising in front of some of Bedford's gorgeous Georgian buildings.

The awards dinner and dance was held at the historic Corn Exchange which went - you guessed it - very pink for the evening - see above!

It was a wonderful night for my own publisher, Choc Lit, which was awarded the hugely coveted title of Publisher of the Year. Choc Lit's already multi-award-winning author Christina Courtenay also scooped the award for Historical Novel of the Year. Christina's in the middle, sandwiched between Choc Lit authors Liz Harris and Sue Moorcroft.

Several wildest dreams came true that evening, with three people getting publishing deals from Entice/Piatkus/Little, Brown - congratulations, Celia Anderson, Terri Nixon and Beth Chambers, whose novels will all be published next year.

Yesterday, Choc Lit authors Liz Harris, Sarah Tranter, Sue Moorcroft. Christina Courtenay and I were busy selling books and offering chocolate to readers at the book fair in town - see below.

I had a great time and am already looking forward to next year's Festival. But this week it's the Romantic Novelists' Association's Winter Party - so there's more fun, pinkness and glitter coming up!

Who said November is the dreariest month and that's why she was born in it? I believe it was Jo in Little Women. You should have skipped a century or two and joined the RNA, Jo March! We romantic novelists would have shown you a good time!

Thursday, November 15, 2012

It's National Short Story week, so what better way to celebrate than with a winning story in a national competition? Oh, and a delicious chocolate experience, too!

Sue Moorcroft, Linda Mitchelmore and I had the pleasure of reading dozens of excellent short stories for Choc Lit's latest competition, and we had a hard time choosing two winners. But, after a lot of discussion and whittling down a longlist, we decided on a winner and runner-up.

So - congratulations to winner Tracy Fells and runner-up Laura E James (no relation). Laura was also the runner-up in the last Choc Lit short story competition. Spooky - but don't worry, people, we judges didn't have any names or other details about the entrants, so the judging process was absolutely fair.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Festival of Romance - that sounds glamorous and exciting, doesn't it? Well, I'm excited because so many of my friends are in the shortlists for awards this year, and I'm hoping they'll all win.

I've got my party frock all ready and my dancing shoes polished up.

Here are the people and books on the shortlists - lots of familiar names there, all of them brilliant writers, so I'm glad I'm not the one who's going to have to make any final decisions on Friday 16th November!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

My Book of the Month for November is
Christine Stovell’s delightful new romantic novel Move Over Darling. Christine was happy to sit on my virtual sofa and answer a few questions about a story in which two very unlikely lovers find
they are perfectly suited, after all.

What first got you writing Move Over
Darling, Christine- a place, a person, a situation?

The seeds were sown when I moved to west Wales and discovering that the population of the county I’d moved
to was roughly equal to the small Surrey borough I’d just left. However, the image that made me start
writing was seeing my hero, Gethin Lewis, returning to Penmorfa, the village
he’s turned his back on, to wind up his father’s estate. I saw him cresting the hill in his hired car
and catching his first glimpse of everything he’s left behind. I could feel his mixed emotions and wondered
why he was unhappy to be home. I knew that his intention was to tie up all the
loose ends and put Penmorfa behind him for good. So I gave him a couple of
problems…

Do you identify strongly with your heroine, Coralie?

My characters – even (some would say
especially) the troublesome ones – all share aspects of me, I guess, because
they’ve sprung from my imagination. Coralie’s more feminine than me, with her
love of vintage clothes and what Gethin calls her ‘girlie clutter’, although
she can change a tyre which is more than I can!

Well, of course research is very
important and Choc Lit authors are very diligent about that aspect of their
work. Seriously, for me it starts with a mental image; Gethin at the wheel of a
car, Matthew in Turning the Tide, sitting with his back to the world. Then I’ll start asking questions – even
something simple like, ‘what’s your name’ and weighing up the response until I
think I’ve got it right. Voices are
important too - I know when my hero’s arrived when I can hear him speaking.

Do you draw any of your inspiration from
real life, or do you make everything up?

My fictional locations are entirely made
up, although Penmorfa in Move Over Darling is inspired by the romantic
rugged landscape of west Wales where I live and Little Spitmarsh in Turning the Tide by
places I’ve visited when sailing.

I keep notebooks, too, collecting
snippets of news and recording anything that interests me. Eventually these notes compost down into
fertile material for creative writing.What's the best piece of writing advice you have
ever received and would like to pass on?

Well, it’s ‘apply bum to seat’
basically. More helpfully, it was
reading an article by Jane Wenham-Jones in response to a writer who always gave
up on his novels at the 10,000 word mark.
It struck a chord with me because I’d always given up around that point
too. Jane’s advice was not to worry about getting the first draft right but to
just grit your teeth and get it written – once I did that I got published! If only I’d got on with
it sooner!

Thank you, Christine – it was great talking to you. I know you’ve been busy recently, organising your daughter’s wedding. I hope you won’t mind if I post a picture of the three of you – Daughters 1 and 2 and Mother of the Bride – gorgeous, all of you!

If you click on the book image to the right of
this post, it will take you to the UK’s Amazon website where you can learn more about Christine’s
book.

Margaret James The Silver Locket

Margaret James Elegy for a Queen Kindle Edition

About Me

I'm a novelist, journalist and teacher of creative writing for the London School of Journalism. I've written fifteen published novels and lots of short stories, one of which was published in the RNA's Golden Anniversary anthology, Loves Me, Loves Me Not - am very proud of that!